Denis Villeneuve Was Only “Half-Satisfied” With The '80s ‘Dune’ But Says David Lynch Is “The Master”

We are mere weeks away from the release of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic, “Dune.” But this is definitely not the only time that a filmmaker has tried to adapt Frank Herbert’s classic novel into a film or TV series. Back in 2000, Syfy attempted to adapt “Dune” as a limited series, and while the story seemed to cover all the bases, the budget limitations ultimately hurt the finished product. But the most famous adaptation has to be from David Lynch, who released his version of “Dune” in 1984. That film is a wild take on the source material that took Herbert’s epic and condensed it into two hours, skipping some parts and expanding on others. It’s often looked at as a huge misfire, one the director doesn’t even like talking about. For Villeneuve, he’s a bit more diplomatic in his evaluation of Lynch’s “Dune.”

Speaking to Empire, Denis Villeneuve offers his thoughts on David Lynch’s “Dune” and why he thinks Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel from 1965 can still resonate with audiences today.

“I’m a big David Lynch fan, he’s the master,” said Villeneuve. “When I saw [Lynch’s] ‘Dune,’ I remember being excited, but his take… there are parts that I love and other elements that I am less comfortable with. So it’s like, I remember being half-satisfied. That’s why I was thinking to myself, ‘There’s still a movie that needs to be made about that book, just a different sensibility.’”

Obviously, that’s a very nice way to say Lynch’s version of “Dune” isn’t great. If you’ve read the novel, you know that Lynch took some artistic liberty with the source material and combined with the abbreviated finished cut (which the filmmaker famously doesn’t support since the studio cut his three-hour film down to two hours), you get a mess of an adaptation. Clearly, Villeneuve is attempting to side-step the length issue by breaking up “Dune” into two parts, though there’s the risk the second part won’t ever get made if the first fails.

But Villeneuve is confident the film isn’t going to fail. Why? Well, the director thinks Herbert’s vision is something that will attract the general public to “Dune.”

“The book, for me, is about prescience,” explained Villeneuve. “A character that can see the future. I feel that Herbert himself had a pretty good view of the future, people exploiting natural resources with brutality and other people fighting for the sake of nature.”

Will “Dune” draw huge crowds in theaters and to HBO Max when it debuts on October 22? We’ll just have to wait and see. If early buzz is any indication, the film should at least be better than the ‘80s and ‘00s versions.